“ALL-YOU-CAN-CARVE” WRISTBANDS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FOR GREAT HIGHWOOD PUMPKIN FEST, OCTOBER 18-20, 2012

“ALL-YOU-CAN-CARVE” WRISTBANDS NOW AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE FOR GREAT HIGHWOOD PUMPKIN FEST, OCTOBER 18-20, 2012

HIGHWOOD, IL (OCTOBER 18-20, 2012) – After breaking the world record in 2011 for lighting 30,919 pumpkins throughout town at once, the City of Highwood’s Great Highwood Pumpkin Fest 2012 is thrilled to try and break their own record again by carving 32,000 pumpkins. The City has announced that “all-you-can-carve” glow-in-the-dark wristbands will be available for purchase.  

These keepsake wristbands will tie Highwood together as a community, and will serve as a souvenir for all to remember and celebrate Highwood’s 125th Anniversary. 

Attendees are encouraged to buy wristbands as soon as possible, before the price goes up! From July 18 through August 16: wristbands are only $10, from August 17 through September 13: wristbands are $15, and from September 14 through October 18: the wristbands are $20. Keepsake wristbands are useable for all three days of the festival. This year, no individual pumpkins will be sold. Anyone six years or older must have a wristband to carve, and all pumpkins will be pre-scooped for convenience and ease of carving. 

These pumpkin carving wristbands will be sold at many businesses throughout Highwood, as well as Highwood’s Evening Gourmet Farmers Market every Wednesday through September 12. From 4-9pm in Everts Park, look for the Celebrate Highwood tent in the dining area to purchase wristbands. To purchase wristbands online, please go to http://www.eventzilla.net/web/event?eventid=2138968131. 

Highwood's three-day festival, from October 18-20, will bring over 60,000 people together from across the country to share in a wonderful community experience. The free event offers pumpkin carving, a 5K Pumpkin Run and Kids’ Dash, a Pumpkin Land Regatta, a Pumpkin Parade, live music, artisan foods with pumpkin flair, children’s activities, and so much more. Walls of jack-o-lanterns, up to 30 feet high, line the streets of downtown Highwood. The family fun festivities offer plenty of opportunities for people to come together, carve pumpkins and place them on one of the Great Pumpkin Walls for display, and then take them back home after the record breaking attempt on Saturday, October 20 is completed.  

About The City of Highwood 

Highwood was founded in 1868 by William Wallace Everts, a Chicago civic leader and world-renown educator. His concept of a family-based community has endured for more than a century. The beautiful Everts Park, in the heart of downtown Highwood, has been named in the founder's honor. Benches and trees in the park celebrate and remember people who, through turbulent times and peaceful ones, built and sustained the community. Many of Highwood's street names recall Everts' family and friends whom the founder encouraged to build homes here. Residents of Swedish, Irish, Italian, Latino and other heritages have since populated the community, each enriching the community through their cultural traditions.

The Village of Highwood was incorporated in 1887. The name briefly became Village of Fort Sheridan and then City of Fort Sheridan. In 1904, the community officially became known as the City of Highwood. Fort Sheridan, a former army base slightly northeast of the City, has had a profound influence on Highwood's development, and it continues to do so today as part of its land, incorporated into the City, nearly doubled Highwood in size. Today, Highwood is blending the past and present with exciting new plans for its future.

The City of Highwood, IL administrative offices are located at 17 Highwood Avenue
Highwood, Illinois 60040.  For more information, please visit www.highwoodpumpkinfest.com. Tel: 847.432.1924.